Imaging of single DNA molecule: applications to high-resolution genomic studies

Single molecule analysis of DNA has revealed new insights into its structural and physical properties. The application of new methods for manipulating and visualizing DNA has resulted in important advances in high-resolution physical mapping of the genome and quantitative cytogenetic studies of genomic abnormalities (Lichter 1997). Studies of single molecules of DNA have employed a variety of approaches including electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning-tunneling microscopy and fluorescence microscopy. A number of new technologies have recently been developed to exploit fluorescence microscopy's full potential for genomic analysis and the fine mapping of subtle genetic alterations. In the case of the latter application, particular emphasis has been placed on developing new methods for stretching DNA for high-resolution fluorescence in-situ hybridization studies. We have recently described a process called molecular combing according to which single DNA molecules bound by their extremities to a solid surface are uniformly stretched and aligned by a receding air/water interface (Bensimon et al. 1994). In the following, we will review recent developments concerning molecular combing and discuss its current and potential applications for the high-resolution mapping of the human genome, the detection and quantification of subtle genomic imbalances and the positional cloning of disease-related genes.